Issues raised by light rail were brought up by Chevy Chase trolley more than 100 years ago

(Hover your mouse over the picture of the trolly to see the rendering of a light rail train) The Purple Line project would traverse 16 miles between downtown Bethesda and New Carrollton via Silver Spring, and is being touted as a key transportation system that would connect workers with jobs.

Whatever the impact of the proposed Purple Line light rail project, it's unlikely that it will feature cowcatchers, three-cent fares and local grocery delivery. In these respects, the Rock Creek Railway's legacy appears secure.

Supporters and opponents have considered the Purple Line's effect on transportation, development and recreation to 2030 and beyond. But the issues surrounding the bearing of mass transit on residential communities in Montgomery County go back to the late 19th century, when two revolutionary developments at the time, the suburb and the electric trolley, came together to form the first Chevy Chase communities.

"What really made that ideal possible was the advent of public transportation," said historian Elizabeth Jo Lampl, in a documentary called "Chevy Chase, Maryland: A Streetcar to Home," produced by the Chevy Chase Historical Society.

The 16-mile Purple Line project, which would connect downtown Bethesda to New Carrollton via Silver Spring, could strengthen the commercial sinews that tie local communities. But the Rock Creek Railway's goal, in a twist on modern perceptions of public transit, was to preserve Chevy Chase's relatively pastoral atmosphere and isolation.

From its start in 1892, the railway served as a lifeline along its six-mile route between downtown Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase Lake. It was considered leisurely enough that one resident who frequently missed the trolley at his stop would run to the front of the train, jump on the cowcatcher that moved objects off the tracks, unfold his newspaper to peruse the day's headlines, and then clamber off at the next stop so he could get aboard one of the cars.

Tree-lined streets and plentiful green spaces demonstrated the 1,700-acre area's radical and purposeful departure from city life. Cows grazed in Chevy Chase Circle, and houses along Connecticut Avenue had a mandatory basement price of $5,000, a healthy sum at the time.

"This was the noble thing to do for your family," said Mary Anne Hoffman, executive producer of "A Streetcar to Home" and a Historical Society spokeswoman. "… The railway made it possible to live in the country and still work in the city."

While the Purple Line itself would be a public entity serving local commerce and commuters, the Rock Creek Railway operated at a loss for many years under U.S. Sen. Francis Newlands and his Chevy Chase Land Co. Commercial developments were prohibited in Chevy Chase for many years. "It didn't hurt that he had the deep pockets to withstand those hard times," said historian Kimberly Prothro Williams in "A Streetcar to Home."

More than 110 years later, the same Chevy Chase Land Co. is anticipating Purple Line light rail with new development plans for the Chevy Chase Lake area, which could end up resembling the King Farm mixed-use development in Rockville. But when the trolley line ended at Chevy Chase Lake, the attraction was not a grocery store and small specialty shops, but the U.S. Marine Corps Band and an amusement park on summer nights.

The company may hope to avoid the fate of the first major commercial venture in the area, the Chevy Chase Springs Hotel along Connecticut Avenue, which shut its doors after only a few years. The hotel building eventually became the National 4-H Youth Conference Center.

"Clearly, it will spur development," Hoffman said of the Purple Line. "It will be an ironically different kind of development than our first streetcar line encouraged."

College students at the University of Maryland, meanwhile, who have supported light rail through the group "Terps for the Purple Line," likely would be even more in favor of the project if they could pay the fare their grade-school predecessors enjoyed more than a century ago.

Students traveling from the District to a school in Montgomery County at the start of the 20th century could hop on the Rock Creek Railway for just three cents, compared to the 10-cent charge between Chevy Chase and the District.

Even with the trolley and large tracts of land available, it took approximately 30 years from 1892 to sell all the land in areas that would become Chevy Chase communities. In 1935, the trolley service ended. Those fighting over whether light rail or a bus system is the better option for the Purple Line might appreciate the irony in what replaced the Rock Creek Railway: 62 buses.